Awakening
by koubatsu
Summary: A shy redhead awakes from a seemingly unending coma and receives a shock.
1. Flight

Her eyes flickered.

She woke with a jolt. A sudden surge of life was embued within her.

Mahiru opened her eyes. She was confused. A splitting headache was apparent as she clutched her burgundy hair. She had tried to stretch out her body, but to no avail. Her body was trapped within something, similar to a human sized case. All she could see from within her confinement was vivid blue and green lights.

All she could recollect was seeing Fuyuhiko. She could remember a horrifying expression creep up on the Yakuza's face. She pondered as to what was sickening the frail boy, but as she was about to ask him, everything went dark.

The world as she came to know it had went from a bright sun and blue beaches to a dreadful black. Black mixed in with hot pink. What had happened to her? She could recollect her life slipping away from her. Like grains of sand in your hand slipping away, except, a lot more gruesome.

Her scared, shrill voice squeaked, "H-Hello? Is anyone there?" and upon finishing her sentence, the case which confined her shot upon with smoke also leaving from it.

Mahiru curled her upper lip, wondering what was going. Had the boys played a prank on her and decide to her in the beach warehouse? She had became irritated, furrowing her brow.

She sat upright, staring at the room. Upon closer inspection, she realised that the room she was currently in and the beach warehouse bore no similiarities. Her irritable expression turned to one of horror as she began exploring the dimly lit room.

There was fifteen human confinement cases, with transparent glass so you could see the faces of those confined within them. The first face she saw was a matured face that looked to be in a sweet, peaceful slumber.

Hiyoko Saionji, the Ultimate Dancer, was lying before her. But she was different. Her kimono wasn't the usual bright orange kimono she had usually donned. It was a calm pink and flowery. Then Mahiru realised. Her facial features were much more developed, as if she had gone through puberty overnight. She didn't have her iconic puffy, childlike face that Mahiru remembered.

What was going on? How long had Mahiru been asleep for? She could barely recognise Hiyoko; she was different beyond belief. She looked so elegant and so graceful in her deep slumber. Mahiru only wondered as to why she was now sleeping within a confinement case.

Mahiru banged on the glass, yelling at the top of her lungs. "Hiyoko?! Hiyoko?! Wake up! Where are we? Hiyoko!" and she kept banging on the glass, but not a hint of her awakening from her slumber was apparent. Koizumi felt grim, her body weak.

She feared the worst. Mahiru couldn't open her case. Had Hiyoko passed on? There was no way. She looked at her calm, resting face. There was surely no way such an innocent looking young woman could, surely, now be lying as a corpse within this case. This was all so surreal to take in.

Mahiru eventually gave up her hopes in waking Hiyoko up. A single tear ran down her face as she cried meekly, "Hiyoko..."

Mahiru continued venturing around the room. Some cases were empty and void, but as she continued examining the continents within these cases, she could identify every single face.

Byakuya Togami.

Teruteru Hanamura.

Peko Pekoyama.

Hiyoko Saionji.

Ibuki Mioda.

Mikan Tsumiki.

Nekomaru Nidai.

Gundam Tanaka.

And finally, Nagito Komaeda. But something was wrong. There were five cases that were empty. If these people were her classmates, where was her six remaining classmates? She knew the faces that were missing.

Hajime Hinata.

Chiaki Nanami.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu.

Sonia Nevermind.

Souda Kazuichi.

Akane Owari.

She couldn't speculate as to why those six were missing and there was one case short of her entire class. Fear wriggled within her. All of the classmates that remained smiled serenely in their deep sleep.

After her previous attempts to wake Hiyoko up, the efforts to wake up the remaining classmates seemed fruitless to Mahiru. She was confused. She had never felt so hopeless in her entire life.

[IN PROGRESS: LAST EDITED 11/10/2016 02/16]


	2. Reminiscing

Mahiru could see a door. It emanated light from beyond. She cast a distraught look at her classmates still in their sleep, muttering under her breath, "I'll see you all again soon... I'm not sure where we are, but for your sake... I promise this won't be our last meeting."

With her words that filled her with a sense of false security, she clasped her hand around the doorknob, biting down on her lip. She still had no clue as to what was going on, or where they were. But whatever it is, the young photographer was now getting ready to find out.

And then, she departed.

The sky was a blood red. A horrid sensation was filling Mahiru's entire body. All that she could feel was a feeling of utter dread spreading over her body and mind. She tried to advance on, but immediately, she realized that here legs were frozen in place. She was extremely doubtful of her capability to go on - if there was ever a time she wanted someone, especially Hiyoko, it would be right now.

She tried her hardest to get motion back in her legs, but it was to no avail. It was at times like this she remembered how her classmates would use their talents to their advantages - but Mahiru was just a silly photographer. She didn't think highly of her photos, which was definitely being quite detrimental to her situation at hand.

She wanted her mother. She was terrified beyond belief. Her mother had been ten times the photographer she ever was. Her mother would know what to do in this situation; if she could see Mahiru right now, she'd be embarrassed, Mahiru believed.

As Mahiru's legs were still stiffened, she heard a stampede of footsteps in the distance. It sounded like something was running on the bridge, presumably running after her.

Mahiru wanted to flee from the situation. She wanted to flee from the situation. She was almost positive that whatever lay on the other side of that bridge was most likely not coming to her with good intentions. She knew her awakening was a mistake. Why couldn't she have just stayed asleep? Were her classmates that were currently missing dead? Had they meet the same gruesome end that Mahiru was surely going to meet for trying to get answers?

She tried with all her might to get her legs to move. It was pointless, however. Her legs were failing her. She was shaking horribly, wriggling in anxiety. Her nerves were through the roof and the only thing that was stopping her from completely breaking down was her camera and the thoughts of all her friends smiling faces - she had give a few of them a hard time before, but in actuality, she did care for all of them individually, she just was not good at letting her emotions out. She did not want to seem vulnerable. She had been incredibly harsh on the boys, and she still felt terrible. She blamed her father for making her such a mess regarding boys, but when it all boiled down to it, she should have been nicer.

All she could hope for now was that the people making their way to her weren't looking for blood, because with the way her body was acting currently...

She wouldn't be able to prevent blood being spilled.

The footsteps edged closer. In the distance, eyes were staring at her. Just as her nerves were about to cave in on her, she could see the owner of one set of eyes become visible.

"Mahiru!" called out the young yakuza, Fuyuhiko kuzuryuu. He ran up to her and clasped his arms around her. This was certainly a first for the usually aggressive and hard-headed yakuza. The yakuza had now tightened his grip on her, more recognizable faces came out of the darkness.

Her missing classmates Hajime Hinata, Sonia Nevermind, Akane Owari and Souda Kazuichi appeared. All were looking in awe as the yakuza refused to let go of the photographer.

She had began scanning her classmates when she realized something was off with the boy who had described himself as 'hopelessly average'. Hajime's left eye was blood red, the same colour as the sky above. He bore a gigantic smile on his face, waving a hand out at her.

Her nerves had began subsiding, although a one Chiaki Nanami was still missing from the scene.

Even though her previously missing classmates had now appeared before her, this had not made her forget about her other classmates who were presumably still sleeping peacefully, not aware of how bad of a state Mahiru had just found herself in.

She had not even said hello to her other classmates when she yelled out, "What happened to the others?! Why won't Hiyoko wake up?!" She turned to stare at her classmates, who all now had began exchanging looks, Fuyuhiko now letting go of her, giving her some space back. All these scared and unnerving faces made Mahiru's fear for the worst rise.

"D-Don't tell me... is she...? T-That's impossible! She can't be dead!" She screamed, the tears now tripping her again. Her friendship with Hiyoko was so short lived; she had just barely gotten to know the Ultimate Dancer, but already felt a bond develop between the two.

Hajime placed a gentle hand on the flustered girl's shoulder. "Mahiru... she isn't dead. She's... in a coma... like you were."

Mahiru's eyes widened.

"W-What...?"


End file.
